The contract minute requires care for the track between Mafra and Lages, but does not set a deadline for train resumption.

Opinion Piece — This text takes a favorable stance from its title towards the resumption of rail transport between Mafra and Lages. It is not a neutral report.

The National Land Transportation Agency - ANTT deemed the suspension of the railway between Mafra and Lages irregular, fined the concessionaire, and ordered the resumption of operations within 30 days.According to the Ministry of Transportation, as informed to the Chamber of Deputies, the trains never returned. Now, the ANTT (National Agency for Railway Transport) submits the draft contract, which will govern the line for the next thirty years, to public consultation, and the Unyielding read this draft clause by clause: the future concessionaire will have the duty to maintain the 292.76 km, but also the obligation toTo begin the operationAt a specific date, only the sections with fixed deadlines in the works annex are reached, and the Catarinense section does not have a deadline specified there. Maintaining the track and operating the train are different obligations: the draft imposes conservation throughout the concession period and sets an operation deadline only for sections linked to scheduled works. There is also a second finding: the return clause uses the absence of commercial traffic as a criterion of uneconomicalness, while a 1940 military work, resumed in recent studies by the Superior War School, argues that there is a railway whose purpose is not commercial: in the 617 pages of the central documents of the public consultation, the words "Army," "military," and "national defense" do not appear even once. This is the second part of the series on the South Main Trunk, investigated byUnyieldingText: — "a" (no original, falta o restante do texto para tradução completa)First part: This is the initial segment of the journalistic text, presenting the opening narrative or context for the story. (Note: Without the full text, a complete translation cannot be provided.)It showed that the section is on the concession map and outside the works plan; this second one deals with the mechanism: how the text in public consultation allows the line to be received, maintained without a train, and finally returned at the request of the concessionaire, precisely because it has no train.

What the draft agreement requires and what it does not require

Thedraft contract for the Mercosul Corridor, with eighty pages, imposes on the future concessionaire, in clause 3.1.4 on page 14, the duty of "maintaining the concession assets in good working order, conservation, and security, and at its own expense" during the validity of the contract.The Obligations Booklet, which is the annex where the works gain deadlines and costs, reinforces on item 3.12 on page 10 that the concessionaire "is obligated to meet or exceed the minimum values of all Minimum Technical Specifications (...) throughout the entire duration of the Concession." Nothing distinguishes the section with the train from the section without it: preserving is valid for the 292.76 km between Mafra and Lages as well as for the rest of the network.

Reproduction: ANTT — Public Hearing No. 11/2026.Read the contract minute.

Preserve, however, is not operate, and the minute treats both in separate clauses. The obligation to put the train into circulation appears in clause 14.2.2, which lists the concessionaire's duties, and it comes with a condition: item (v) on page 32 states "complete the Fixed-Term Investments, and commence operation of the section within the time frame set out in the Obligations Booklet." The minute's glossary, on page 8, defines Fixed-Term Investments as "interventions that the Concessionaire must complete within the deadlines and conditions established in the Obligations Booklet."

APart 1 of this seriesThis already showed what is in the Interstate Corridor Obligations Notebook: forty pages where the word "Mafra" does not appear once, and all four mandatory investments in superstructure are in Rio Grande do Sul. The joint reading of the two documents indicates that there is no specific deadline for the section: without a deadline in the Notebook, the obligation to start operation does not apply, only the general duty of conservation. The draft does not mention Mafra or Lages once in its eighty pages, because the section enters through the object described in the tender, not by name; and it brings a possible editorial oversight, which public consultation serves to correct: the "Railway" entry on page 7 describes the "section that makes up the Rio Grande Corridor," although the document is for the Mercosul Corridor.

Photo: Carlos Latuff, April 2004, reproduced with written authorization from the author. Copy hosted atBrazilian Railway Stationsby Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht.

The natural objection to this interpretation is that the obligation to operate does not only reside in the works annex: the general rule of concessions imposes that the public service be continuous, and the fine mentioned in the opening of this text proves that ANTT knows how to invoke it. Despite the fine and the order to resume operations, the trains remain idle. A written-down obligation in the contract is invoiced ex officio, with the possibility of sanctions after the delay's investigation; a generic obligation is invoiced through a process, in which the agency must prove the irregularity, win appeals, and ultimately ensure compliance. The draft under public consultation repeats, for the next thirty years, the design that has just proven insufficient: only generic obligations for Mafra-Lages.

2. Passengers and tourism: the hypothesis that the study did not consider

Those who follow the case in the Mountain ask why the concession was designed only for cargo, if the region lives off tourism and the line has already transported passengers. The explanation is inInterstate Corridor Demand StudyThe 252-page document that estimates what is worth transporting and serves as a basis for sizing the contract did not assess passengers or tourism. The word "passengers" appears twice, both in generic methodological explanations (pages 32 and 41); "tourism" once, on page 169, in a paragraph about cement economics. The draft tender and the Obligations Book do not include either of the two words.

The draft, in contrast to the study, considers the hypothesis: it defines "Passenger Trains" in the glossary on page 11 as "those consisting of cars, and intended to convey people and their baggage," and includes, in the Tariff Revenue entry on page 10, the revenue from "providing services for transporting cargo or passengers" — entries that may be standardized text reused from other drafts, as suggested by the carelessness noted above, and which therefore do not prove, alone, that the project considers passengers. The study guiding the economic modeling overlooked this, and there is a possible explanation for this: the public hearing explicitly deals with rail freight transport, so the absence may stem from the chosen subject matter rather than a flaw in the study. Nevertheless, it is the subject under discussion in the consultation. The line between Mafra and Lages transported passengers until 1978 and maintained mixed trains until 1983, according to Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht's station-by-station survey.

Photo: Carlos Latuff, April 2004, reproduced with written permission from the author. Copy hosted atStations of BrazilBy Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht.

The Federal Public Ministry — MPF also advocated this hypothesis: in a circular letter dated February 27, 2026, seven members of the institution listed the guidelines they consider essential in new railway contracts, and the first one is "reclaiming the smallest number of sections possible, promoting the reuse of infrastructure in economically reusable conditions, either through shortlines, tourism or urban integration, with public interest prevailing over private interests." The control body requests that attention be given to tourism; the study that sizes the contract did not.

3. Deciding now, because later it will depend on the company.

The obvious question arises: if the section is left out of the works plan now, wouldn't it be enough to include it later? Subsequent inclusion would depend on another procedure. Clause 7.4 on page 22 states that the concessionaire "cannot oppose the realization of Additional Investments of small volume in the Railway," with the right to economic and financial rebalancing; clause 7.5, immediately below, provides that investments "of medium and large volume in the Railway may be authorized by ANTT, provided that in common agreement with the Concessionaire, after analysis of feasibility, budgeting, and previously agreed economic and financial rebalancing conditions." Additional Investments, as defined on page 7, are "interventions, works, activities, and services not provided for in the Obligations Booklet."

Recomposing almost three hundred kilometers into operation would hardly be classified as a small-volume intervention. If so, the practical difference between including and not including the section in the works annex is the difference between an obligation that the agency enforces and a work that the agency needs to negotiate. The draft does not specify what separates small volume from medium and large volume: clause 7.3 refers the definition and criteria for classification to a specific regulation by ANTT, which still does not exist, so the practical effect of the distinction will only be known after the contract is signed. It should be noted that classifying the recovery of almost three hundred kilometers as a large-volume work is an inference from this assessment, not a budgeted figure.

Reproduction: ANTT — Public Hearing No. 11/2026.Read the contract draft..

The consultation deadline runs: bynotice published in the Official Gazette of the Union, contributions to Public Hearing No. 11/2026 can be sent from 9 a.m. on June 15 until 11:59 p.m. on August 10, 2026, and the four in-person sessions in Brasília, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Florianópolis all took place in July. Once this window closes, the ANTT consolidates the final text: that's why this investigation was published with questions still open, declared below.

The fine mentioned in this text is known only through the account of an ANTT representative at a meeting, as stated in Informative Note No. 65/2025 from the Ministry of Transportation, without a process number, without a value, and without a status. The opposite action has a number, date, and Official Gazette page: by Decision No. 347 of September 12, 2025, the ANTT Directorate acceded to the concessionaire's request and reduced the production target for the Mafra-Roca Sales section, which includes Mafra-Lages, from 710.7 million useful ton-kilometers in 2023 to 18.3 million in 2026, a reduction of 97%. The same agency that reported the fine at the meeting signed, two months later, the act that nearly zeros the transportation expectation for the section.

4. The return of the segment and the destination of the compensation

The text provided is incomplete, so here is the translation based on what was given: "The article:"# Part 1 The Brazilian government has announced a groundbreaking initiative to combat deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In a recent press conference, Environment Minister Maria Silva revealed a comprehensive plan to preserve the region's biodiversity and promote sustainable practices. The strategy involves a multi-faceted approach, including increased law enforcement efforts, reforestation programs, and incentives for local communities to adopt eco-friendly agriculture. The government aims to reduce illegal logging and farming activities that contribute to deforestation. Minister Silva emphasized the importance of protecting the Amazon's unique ecosystem, stating, "Our goal is to ensure the long-term survival of the Amazon's rich biodiversity while empowering local communities to thrive sustainably." The plan also includes investments in renewable energy projects and infrastructure development with environmental sustainability as a key priority.It showed clause 3.2.5, which allows the concessionaire to "request the return or deactivation of the Concession Assets related to idle or uneconomical railway sections," and demonstrated that the characterization of uneconomicity depends on a technical study that evidences, alternatively, among other hypotheses, the "absence of commercial traffic" — which is therefore one possible basis for the request, not an automatism. The clause continues on page 16 with items (iii) and (iv), which deal with money.

By item (iii), the concessionaire "will be required to compensate the granting authority for any deterioration or damage caused to the returned sections". By item (iv), this compensation "may be converted into investments in the remaining network of the Concession", with ANTT responsible for assessing the benefits of the proposal and the relevance of the investment. In the specific case: if the line between Mafra and Lages is returned in a deteriorated state, the money compensating for this deterioration can be allocated to another point on the network, and the remaining network of the Mercosul Corridor extends from Iperó, São Paulo, to Roca Sales, Rio Grande do Sul. The compensation is due to the granting authority, not the state, and nothing in the clause ensures that the value returns to the section from which it originated: Santa Catarina could keep the deteriorated line while the compensation is used for works in another state.

Reproduction: ANTT — Public Hearing No. 11/2026.Read the contract minute..

The agency's own regulation creates a circular effect: theANTT Resolution No. 6,058 of December 19, 2024considers idle, in Article 3(II), the section where there is "absence of commercial traffic for the last 2 years", and equates this absence to "traffic of up to 2 freight or passenger trains per semester" in the unique paragraph. A section thus classified can be the subject of a public call for another operator to exploit it, as provided for in Article 2(II). The route exists, but depends on the agency structuring it and someone showing interest.

5. Historic stations, between restoration and return

The draft provides for two possible destinations for the historic heritage along the line. Clause 3.1.10 on page 15 states that, regarding "immovable properties with historical, tourist, architectural, or cultural characteristics," the concessionaire shall, within two years of assumption, elaborate a Patrimonial Destination Plan "providing for their restoration and maintenance, preserving their original features." The Serra stations fall under this description.

Reproduction: ANTT — Public Hearing No. 11/2026.Read the contract draft..

The following clause provides for the alternative: by 3.1.11, "alternatively, the Concessionaire may express interest in returning the properties to the Granting Authority." The company takes the initiative between restoration and return, although the return depends on ANTT regulation, and the effect of the second option is to transfer to the Union the conservation of buildings spread over almost three hundred kilometers of unused line, the same Union that has not been able, so far, to get the train running again there.

Photo: Carlos Latuff, April 2004, reproduced with written authorization from the author. Copy hosted atBrazilian Railway StationsText: By Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht.

There is a precedent in the same network.

The path has already been trodden on the same network: On December 6, 2023, the Plenary of the Union Accounting Court - TCU homologated a consensual solution regarding the return of the section between Presidente Prudente and Presidente Epitácio, in São Paulo, operated by the same concessionaire, due to lack of economic viability; the controversy there was no longer about whether to return, but rather how to calculate the compensation for tracks, sleepers, and ballast. The rapporteur, Minister Jorge Oliveira, noted that "64% of the Brazilian railway network is underutilized or inactive and that returning a section is a path to solving this public problem." The same court maintains the railway concessions on its List of High Risk of the Federal Public Administration, notes that the ANTT supervision has been hindered by the lack of adequate methodologies and the underutilization of the information provided in the Annual Monitoring Reports, and recommends ensuring "that concessionaires comply with the mandatory investments within the deadlines established in the concession contracts": only a written deadline is enforceable.

Text: 7. Commercial criteria and military studies

Everything read so far uses a single criterion, and it makes logical sense: a logistics company exists to transport cargo. However, the training of Brazilian senior officers has followed another criterion since 1940, when General Francisco de Paula Cidade[1]He wrote, in a work that the School of War's studies still cite today, that parallel rail lines to the border line confer strategic mobility and dissuasive power to the country, and that these routes "do not always serve commercial purposes, but would allow troops to be quickly deployed to the point in territory that would enable surprising the enemy." There is no breach of norm here, because a monograph and military doctrine are not contractual clauses: there is the state deciding, on a track it itself built, by a single criterion, when it formed generations of officers as well on the other.

The full-text search of the 617 pages in the central documents of Public Hearing No. 11/2026 (contract and tender minutes, attachments, obligation notebook, engineering, demand, and operational studies) does not yield a single occurrence of the words "Army," "military," "national defense," "Armed Forces," or "critical infrastructure." The three occurrences of "defense" are all "broad defense," processual guarantee; the twelve references to "mobilization" deal with construction sites.

Two recent works from the Higher War School address the topic: the first is from 2016 and deals precisely with this series' subject: Colonel of Engineering Otávio Fontoura Souto Maior[2], who had left the command of the 1st Railway Battalion, the unit based in Lages, in January of that same year, dedicated his monograph to the railway mode and, in his acknowledgments, honored the former railway workers of the battalions that built the line, "for the beautiful page of heroism they wrote by bringing progress on rails from the central region to southern Brazil." His diagnosis is discontinuity: between 2007 and 2015, "seven different infrastructure programs were created, where billion-dollar investment volumes were announced, but most are incomplete or abandoned." The cause he points out is budgetary: investment enters the federal budget under a category that can be cut in fiscal crisis, and highways can be used in segments, while railways only serve when the entire connection is closed, so "a work stoppage costs as much or more than a mobilization." His proposal is for railway programs to be "state-level, not government-level," with protected resources from contingency cuts, and he concludes that partnership with the private sector is the best path, provided the rules are clear.

The second work is from 2024 and measures the relationship: Colonel of Cavalry Daniel Bernardi Annes[3]correlated the evaluation of transportation infrastructure in twenty countries, in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index, with the military capacity of these same countries in 2016, 2018, and 2023: the coefficient of -0.544, with statistically significant confirmation by test, indicates that better infrastructure accompanies greater military power. The author himself limits the scope (infrastructure explains about thirty percent of the variation, the data is secondary, the sample is small) and concludes that "investments in transportation infrastructure should be an integral part of national defense strategy."

Finally, there is an institutional detail that modeling does not address: ANTT, when regulating railway authorization contracts, requires as a minimum mandatory clause the provision of information of interest to the public power and sector authorities, "including specific interests for national defense". The requirement is in Article 43, XIV, of Resolution No. 6,058, 2024, and applies to authorizations, not concessions; in the minutes of this thirty-year concession, no equivalent appears, and the clause allowing return of a section does not submit the return to the manifestation of any defense body, although land transport is included in the National Plan for Critical Infrastructure Security approved by Decree No. 11,200, 2022.

What this investigation shows, therefore, is not illegality: it is the absence of a question in the published documents. Searching for words is an indication, not proof that no strategic evaluation has taken place elsewhere; however, in the papers submitted to consultation, nobody asks if the section built by the Army between Mafra and Lages has value that does not fit into the commercial traffic plan. And one of the two remaining railway battalions in Brazil is located exactly in the city that is the endpoint of this line.

8. What remains open

This investigation does not yet have the number of the sanctioning process and the infraction report against the concessionaire, the value and status of the fine, the reports from the two scheduled inspections for 2025 on the section, nor the date of the last commercial circulation between Mafra and Lages. Also open is a question that the Federal Public Ministry itself formulated and whose answer is not public: in a recommendation of November 13, 2025, four prosecutors requested from the ANTT's Railway Transportation Superintendence and the concessionaire to immediately cease the removal and relocation of rails, fixers, and sleepers from Rio Grande do Sul to Santa Catarina and Paraná, and demanded an inventory of the material already relocated, with origin, destination, quantity, and date. The Unyielding does not know, until publication, if this inventory was presented, nor for which Santa Catarina sections the material followed.

The Unyielding will make information access requests to ANTT, Ministry of Transport, National Department of Transportation Infrastructure - DNIT, Federal Public Ministry, Secretariat of Union Property, and the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage - IPHAN, as well as an opportunity for manifestation from the concessionaire, and will publish the responses in full or, if none are provided, the date, channel, questions, and granted opportunity.

What the draft states about each point of this investigation

• Draft, clause 3.1.4, p. 14— Duty to preserve the concession assets, without distinguishing between sections with or without trains
• Draft, clause 14.2.2 (v), p. 32— Initiate the operation only within the deadlines set forth in the Obligations Booklet
• Draft, clauses 7.4 and 7.5, p. 22— Small-scale work imposed by the agency; medium and large only with mutual agreement
• Draft, clause 3.2.5, items (iii) and (iv), p. 16— Compensation for the deterioration of the returned section, convertible into work in the remaining mesh
• Draft, clauses 3.1.10 and 3.1.11, p. 15— Restoration plan for historical buildings, or their return to public power
• Obligation Book, item 3.12, p. 10Minimum technical specifications required throughout the concession period
• Demand Study, 252 p.— Passengers and tourism absent from modeling
• ANTT Resolution No. 6,058/2024, Article 43, XIV— Clause on information of interest to national defense, required in authorizations but absent in this concession

Anyone with a document, a dated photo of the section, communication from the concessionaire, or information about the last train circulation between Mafra and Lages can contact the reporting team through the pageSuggest a Topicor by emailnewsroom@insubornavel.com.

9. Notes

1. Francisco de Paula Cidade(Porto Alegre, December 22, 1883 — Rio de Janeiro, March 31, 1968) was a Brigadier General in the Brazilian Army and one of the founders of the Institute of Geography and Military History of Brazil. He reached the rank of general in 1942, commanded the 8th Military Region in Pará, and published in 1940 theNotes on South American Military Geographyfrom which the quoted passage in this investigation originates.
2. Otávio Fontoura Souto MaiorHe is a Colonel in the Engineering Corps of the Brazilian Army. He commanded the 1st Railway Battalion, based in Lages, Santa Catarina, until January 15, 2016, when he handed over command to Lieutenant Colonel Luiz Carlos Tomaz Silva at a ceremony presided over by General of the Army Antônio Hamilton Martins Mourão, then Military Commander of the South. In the same year 2016, Souto Maior attended the High Studies Course in Politics and Strategy - CAEPE at the Superior War School, where he presented the monograph mentioned in this investigation.
3. Daniel Bernardi AnnesHe is a Cavalry Colonel in the Brazilian Army. He was nominated by the Force and enrolled in the High Studies Course in Politics and Strategy - CAEPE of the Superior War School for the year 2024, a face-to-face course held in Rio de Janeiro between February and December of that year, at the end of which he presented the monograph mentioned in this investigation.

10. To explore: sources, with notes

10.1 Public consultation documents

• Public Hearing No. 11/2026 - ANTT, with all annexes.https://participantt.antt.gov.br/events?CodigoAudiencia=674 The twenty-four annexes were downloaded and verified using SHA-256 code; the cited pages refer to the files thus preserved, available atTrunk South Archive.
• Public Hearing Notice No. 11/2026 — Official Gazette of the Union, June 3, 2026, Section 3.https://anttlegis.antt.gov.br/action/ActionDatalegis.php?acao=abrirTextoAto&tipo=AUD&numeroAto=00000011&seqAto=000&valorAno=2026&orgao=DG%2FANTT%2FMT&cod_modulo=623&cod_menu=9230Sets the contribution deadline from 9 am on June 15 to 11:59 pm on August 10, 2026, and four public sessions in July in Brasília, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Florianópolis.
• Mercosul Corridor Contract Draft, eighty pages.https://www.insubornavel.com/archive/tronco-sul/ Source of clauses 3.1.4, 3.1.10, 3.1.11, 3.2.5, 7.4, 7.5, and 14.2.2, and the glossary entries on Additional Investments, Time-Limited Investments, Tariff Revenue, and Passenger Trains.
• Interstate Corridor Obligations Booklet, forty pages.Text: https://www.insubornavel.com/archive/south-trunk/ The annex converts the route into a construction obligation; item 3.12 sets the minimum technical specifications, and no project with a deadline reaches the section between Mafra and Lages.
• Interstate Corridor Demand Study, 252 pages.Text: https://www.insubornavel.com/archive/south-trunk/ The full-text search, conducted on August 8, 2026 on the copy preserved by the report, located "passengers" on pages 32 and 41 and "tourism" on page 169; none of these occurrences refer to this corridor.

10.2 Regulation and control

• ANTT Resolution No. 6,058 of December 19, 2024.Text: https://www.insubornavel.com/archive/south-trunk/ Defines idle segment as the absence of commercial traffic for two years, regulates the calling of another operator, and in Article 43, Section XIV, requires in authorization contracts a clause for providing information of specific interest to national defense.
• Office Memorandum No. 1714/2025, with Informative Note No. 65/2025 — Ministry of Transportation, SEI 50000.032910/2025-96.https://www.insubornavel.com/archive/south-trunk/office-memo-1714–2025-informative-note-65-2025.pdfSource of the fine report (paragraph 2.7 of the Note) and cover page.
• ANTT Decision No. 347, dated September 12, 2025 — Official Journal of the Union, September 16, 2025.https://anttlegis.antt.gov.br/action/ActionDatalegis.php?acao=abrirTextoAto&tipo=DLB&numeroAto=00000347&seqAto=000&valorAno=2025&orgao=DG%2FANTT%2FMT&cod_modulo=623&cod_menu=9230Reduces the Mafra–Roca Sales target to 18.3 million ton-kilometers in 2026, at the request of the concessionaire.
• Official news from the Court of Auditors of the Union regarding Acordão 2514/2023-Plenary.TCU Finalizes Consensual Solution for the Return of the Railway Section Between Presidente Prudente and Presidente Epitácio Cities TC Process 000.855/2023-5, December 6, 2023 session; source of the Minister-relator's speech on the 64% of the underutilized or inactive network.
• Federal Public Administration High-Risk List — TCU, file 20.Effectiveness of Highway and Railway Concessions, TCU website. Source of the diagnosis on ANTT railway supervision and recommendations on mandatory investments.
• Federal Public Ministry Circular Letter GAB1/PRM/SA No. 01/2026 from the Coordinated Action of the Southern Network, February 27, 2026.Insubornável Archive: Trunk South Ten pages signed by seven members of the Federal Public Ministry; source of guidelines advocated for new contracts, including reuse by shortlines, tourism or urban integration.
• Recommendation No. 03/2025, dated November 13, 2025, in Civil Inquiry No. 1.29.010.000227/2020-14.https://www.mpf.mp.br/o-mpf/unidades/pr-rs/noticias/mpf-recomenda-o-fim-da-retirada-e-remanejamento-de-trilhos-da-malha-sul-no-rs Signed by four Republic Attorneys; it determines the suspension of the remaneuvering of permanent way material from Rio Grande do Sul to Santa Catarina and Paraná, and demands an auditable inventory of what had already been removed.

10.3 Military Doctrine and History of the Line

• SOUTO MAIOR, Otávio Fontoura.The participation of the railway mode in the Brazilian transport matrixPerspectives. 2016. 53 p. Course Conclusion Work (High Studies Course in Politics and Strategy) — Superior School of War, Rio de Janeiro, 2016. Available at:https://www.insubornavel.com/acervo/tronco-sul/esg-2016-souto-maior-modal-ferroviario-matriz-de-transportes.pdfAccessed on: Aug. 10, 2026.The monograph of the former Commander of the 1st Railway Battalion, read in full by the report: diagnosis of the discontinuity of infrastructure programs, division of the work of the South Main Trunk between the four battalions, and proposal for protected state programs from contingency cuts. The original repository was offline on August 10, 2026; the link is the preserved copy in the collection, with verification code.
• ANNES, Daniel Bernardi.Transport infrastructure and the capacity to apply the military expression of national power2024. Course Completion Work (High Studies Course in Politics and Strategy) — Superior War School, Rio de Janeiro, 2024. Available at:https://www.insubornavel.com/acervo/tronco-sul/esg-2024-annes-infraestrutura-de-transporte-e-poder-nacional.pdfAccessed on: Aug. 10, 2026.The monograph of the cited Colonel of Cavalry in Section 7, read in full by the report: statistical correlation between transport infrastructure and military capacity, and recovery of Francisco de Paula Cidade's passage about the roads that do not serve commercial purposes. Same observation as the previous one regarding the repository and the copy of the collection.
• WAR COLLEGESelection process for CAEPE-2024: list of military officers and civilian selections: 3rd revision. Rio de Janeiro: ESG, Jan. 18, 2024. Available at:https://www.gov.br/esg/en-us/courses/ESG/caepe-high-studies-course-in-politics-and-strategy/2024/caepe-2024-selection-process-result-3rd-revision.pdfAccessed on: Aug. 10, 2026.Official document confirming Colonel Annes' rank and weapon assignment, as well as his enrollment in the course.
• PRADO, Vinicius. 1st Railway Battalion in Lages under the command of a miner who came straight from Manaus.Lageano MailLages, January 19, 2018. Available at:https://clmais.com.br/1st-railway-battalion-in-lages-under-the-command-of-a-mineiro-who-came-straight-from-manaus/Access on: August 10, 2026.A report confirming that Colonel Luiz Carlos Tomaz Silva commanded the 1st Railway Battalion between 2016 and 2017, placing the change in command at the beginning of that year, as noted in the 2016 monograph. The page on the Southern Military Command recording the exact date has been taken down; the report preserved a copy and used this source.
• FAN, Ricardo. 1st Railway Battalion: 163 years of history and achievements celebrated with the Lages community.DefenseNetLages, April 26, 2018. Available at:https://www.defesanet.com.br/terrestre/1st-railway-battalion-163-years-of-history-and-achievements-are-celebrated-with-the-lages-community/Accessed on: August 10, 2026.It records the history of the 1st Railway Battalion from the Engineer Battalion in 1855 and its establishment in Lages in March 1971; the original page from the Army's Engineering and Construction Department is no longer online. The involvement of the four battalions in this project is detailed in Souto Maior's monograph.
• LATUFF, Carlos.Railways of Brazil[blog]. Available at:https://ferroviasdobrasil.blogspot.com/Accessed on: August 10, 2026.Photographer and illustrator, Latuff authorized in writing on August 7, 2026, the reproduction in this report of the photographs he took of Lages station in April 2004.
• GIESBRECHT, Ralph Mennucci. Main South Trunk. In:Railway Stations of Brazil. Available at:https://www.estacoesferroviarias.com.br/sc_troncosul/tronco_sul.htm. Accessed on: Aug. 10, 2026.Station-by-station survey from Mafra to General Luz, with passengers until 1978 and mixed trains until 1983.

Produced with Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic, AI), under direction and responsibility of Benito Juarez.

Style Note — The Unyielding writes with the reverential uppercase of Classical Portuguese and extends it to all professions preceded by a name: the Engineer, the Anthropologist, the Shine-maker — at the same level as the Governor.